Tower construction



April 12, 1932. B. A. MORTON TOWER CONSTRUCTION Filed Sept. 26, 1928 2 Sheets-Sheet N TR N N0 R E N 0 w mi I A A April 12, 1932. B. A. MO'RTON TOWER CONSTRUCTION 7 Filed Sept. 26, 1928- 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 ll'lllll llllillll' j /4 .III 0 I NVEN FOR ,(La ATTORNEYS these already small floors,

Patented Apr. 12, 1932 BENJAMIN A. Mormon, or NEW YORK, iv. Y.

TOWER CONSTRUCTION Applieationfiled September 2c, 1928. Serial No. 308,502.

This invention relates generally to the com struction of steel frame buildings, and especially such buildings as have to be'erected on plots of great value, which must there- 5 fore have a large number of stories in order to make the investment worth while.

In most of our large cities Where real estate values are high,there are building restrictions which require that at certain successive ,10 heights above the street level, the building must occupy, in floor plan, only a certain small proportion of the total ground floor 7 area, whether the plot be completely filled out by the ground floor of the building or not. This renders the floor plan of series of stories at certain successive levels, smaller, and when the relatively large openings necessary for the elevator shafts, air wells, stairways, piping, etc., are formed in space indeed is left. 7

Various arrangements of the'elevator batteries, Stairways, etc., have been proposed, but when an attempt is made to provide more floor space, the result has been that a substantial part of the light and ventilation are cut off. These arrangements have invariably also necessitated the employment of a considerable number of larger and more expensive structural members to take care of the peculiar and heavy loading on the framework the proposed arrangements entail, and

these additional members make it difficult and expensive to provide in the tower walls a sufllcient number, or satisfactory location, of lighting and ventilating openings, and, due to their large size and somewhat irregular locations, themselves out off considerable V it 7 jaway, ofa corner'of a tower; It is the chief ob ect of the invention 'to light and air.

provide a type of construction for steel-frame buildings whereby very tall tower buildings can be erected on small plots, which buildings 1 will have nevertheless a considerably greater J unbroken and rentable floor area than ordinary buildings of the same heightand bulk, or outside dimensions, and yet can include just as many windows, shafts,and other service arrangements.

e Another object of the invention is to pro progressively I a limited rentable :vide abuilding construction of this type whereby practically all of the usualintermediate wall columns or pillars intervening between corner columns in the ordinary 'tower buildings can be omitted, so as to leave all the wall surfaces, from top to bottom of the towers, free for an increased number of windows or other'light and air Topenings, thus making usable'more wall space than can be provided in ordinary tower buildings of the 0 samesize, but at the same time withoutentailing any weakening of the framework thereby, or any other detrimental effects.

A particular object of the invention is to provide a tower building construction which willbestronger as a unitary-framework and better braced against wind pressures and the like, andlower in total cost of construction, than the common tower of the samebulk and height, but nevertheless having a greater '7 rentable floor area than an ordinary tower of the same outside dimensions, and to confer upon it notwithstanding a better appearance and a more pleasing design than is possible lITOI'dlIlHIY steel-frame tower construction. 3 A few typical forms of the inventive idea are illustrated in the accompanying drawings and described hereinafter in detail, but the invention is limited in its embodiments only by the scope of the subjoined claim. I

Fig. 1 is a perspective, partly broken away, of'a building constructed according to the r 7 present invention;

Fig.. 2 is a typical floor plan ofa tower thereof, themain or base portion of the building being shown-in dotted lines as occupying all of a small building plot; I

Fig. 3 is aperspective detail, partly broken Fig. 4 is a detail of a modified tower con-- struction; and I V i Figs. 5 and Gare details of other modifications.

Referring now'mo're in detail to the drawings, and particularly to- Fig. 1, the present 1 invention provides a building having a tower 1 starting from the mainbody of the buildinghere shown asan office buildi r g-at that level at which the building, in accordance the local building laws, must have its the building without intermediate. set-back,

if desired.

According to the present in rention, tlie,

tower comprises a framework having four corner structures 2. As showninthe draw-- ings, particularly Fig. 3, each corner structure is made up of three columnsor pillars 3 spaced from each other in more or less rectangular relation in such a manner as to form a hollow pier l, and these members 2 are extended upwardly to any desired-height, as far as the main body of the tower-isto extend.

The columns 3 are connected together by girders 5 at'their footings on the floor of-the top story of the main building, and are-also connected together by similar girders 5 at each successive floor level 19 thereabove. v The integrity and strength of the piers 4E themselves are provided for by connecting in diagonals or tie-rods 6' tothe columns 3 and girders 5 between each of the floor levels 19, which members 6 also aid'in resisting the torque stresses, andgrea-tly enhance the general strength of'the pier-2 asa unit, and thus of the entire tower, and especially against the high wind stressesto which tall buildings are subjected.

Thus, instead 'of, as is usual,- transmitting the entire load-ofall the floorsand walls,

etc., to continuous wall columns extending from a foundation these columns thus re-' I j s ceiving a cumulative loading asthe stories are added on, thepresent lnvent on provides a structure whereby the floor-and wall loadof'eacli story is supported in the piers 2'entirely separately from that of the I other stories, and there'is thus no-curnulative floor loading put uponthewalls which hence may be made much lighter andof less expensive materials than ordinarily are used in towers.

Pillars 7 are erected as shown in Fig. 2 to connect-thecolumns 3 to each floor to transmit the floor loading-to the piers 2, and at any desired vertical int-ervals,girders.8, provided in the floor framework, are connected to the pillars T, the pillars 7 being themselves connected to the columns 'by others of-thegirders-5.

As a result, between the cornersof the tower portion of the building, no secondary or intermediate wall] columns need be employed, and allthe surfaces of all the sineeach pier 2 lies entirely without the floor hence eachside 0 space of the tower 1, and is connected to the tower by a passageway 10 extending between the columns 7 which are common to the walls of the pier and the tower. By thus connecting the interior of the piers with the floors of the tower, all elevator shafts and fittings and the many other breaks which occur in the-usual tower floor, may be removed from thefloors of the tower and constructed in the piers 2, as shown at 13 in Fig. 3, where three of the piers each support and enclose abatteryof two elevators outside of the floor space and tower walls and completely isolated from the tower. The fourth pier is shown as adapted and fitted to serve as a stairwayv well and sew-ice piping shaft, but any other arrangements maybeymade Without going beyond the extent of the present other. uses. Vihearthefloors areextended.

into the piers to provide additional floor spacethetdiagonal bracing 6' shown inl hg. 8 maybe omitted and a corner bracing such as shown in 6, employed, tethereby allow amplewindow space, as indicated.-

projectingall eleyatcnshafts, air wells, stairw-ays, service shafts, and thelike, o;ut from the floors they are to serve, noappreciable amount oflight-or air iscut oil, and thetotal'tower floor area itselfifor a given height and outside, dimen ions of-tower, is greatly increased over the ordinary total area, since alhfi'oors are left unbrokenby openings ofany sort.

Thecorner members or piers 2. of the-tower are also so constructed, placed, and connected to the floors framework, as to provideian gunusuallyv high factcr ofsafety, especially needed against the vind pressures to whiclrtnll buildings are subjected. close-coupledby the floors of the .tower, and

he torreracts rea verti- Cally extending it seam, thetwc ,pierson; ,each opposite side corr spending to the beads. or

flanges of thebeam, the walls connecting ihemoppositely correspcnding to the; web thereof. Thus the. piers onthe windward side are under tension, and those on the leeward side, under compression, andhence the piers take all such stresses from the walls The piers 2 are.

and floors of the tower, which are therefore ther along the adjacent sides of the tower floors 14, as shown, that is, the corners of the piers 2 lie within the cross sectional area of the tower proper as indicated at 14, and the side walls of the pier which join the walls of the tower do not project outwardly so far as in the first described construction. The corners 15 of the piers may be made of heavy steel similar to the columns 3 and suitable fireproof partitions 16 and doors 17 may be provided at the corner structure, thereby providing fireproof corner structures lying partly within the building.

VVhena somewhat larger plot is available,

and a larger tower 1s therefore'possible, and

more elevator traflic is anticipated, the structure shown in Fig. 5 can be employed to advantage. In this form, one column 3a of'the piers is tied in very closely to its adjacent wall 14', and another column such as 3?) is tied in at a distance from its adjacent wall which depends upon the number of elevators needed in the battery. The other column 30 is tied in to the first two as determined by the locations of these two. This construction also provides more space for traific in the corners 18, and can equally as well be made fireproof, and be braced just as strongly with diagonal or corner bracing or otherwise, as desired.

The piers 2 may begin at the top of the main building, the frame of the latter and particularly the girders 100 thereof serving as a steel foundation for the tower structure and thus providing a greater foundation area than the area of the tower itself. If, however, the location is one where the foundations can readily be carried to bed-rock, the piers may be carried down through the building, thereby permitting a lighter framework to be used for the main portion of the building.

The construction of the present invention provides a tower having. unbroken floors of fully rentable area with all its walls available for windows, and yet of strong unitary construction and better braced against wind and other stresses, though having asmaller number of structural parts, than ordinary towers of the same outside dimensions. In case this building catches on fire, the shafts may be entirely isolated from the tower though forming a structural part thereof, and the fire hazard is thus considerably reduced, materially enhancing the value of the building. By the loading and unloading of the elevators outside of the floor space proper, the noise, annoyance and traffic congestion of the ordinary building areremoved from the main oflice space and isolated from the building, and the employment of this form of constructlon obviously results in improving the appearance of tower buildings,

and provides a new architectural design for oflice and other tall buildings.

I claim:

A steel frame building comprising a main lower portion and a tower portion comprising a plurality offloors and walls supported in vertical arrangement upon said lower portion at their corners only, by a plurality of vertical members outside the walls and floors of said tower portion said vertical members being spaced from'each other and united to the floors insuch a manner as to constitute shafts for servicing the tower, said shafts constituting the only vertical structural members in the tower frame work.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature.

BENJAMIN A MORTON. 

